A Headteacher of more than 20-Years Experience, an Occupational Therapist and an Education Specialist, have joined forces to set up a COVID-19 Recovery Curriculum Summit, whilst gifting every school, throughout the United Kingdom, with online Training.
Their personal mission is to assist teachers with a Handwriting Assessment Training, an Emotional Recovery Training and a Recovery Curriculum. Their wish is to ensure teachers will know how to assess which children need help with their basic literacy skills, as a result of “Lost Learning” during the Lockdown and how to deliver an intervention that will ensure they do not fall behind academically. Their magnanimous offer has been snapped up by no less than 21,400 UK schools in just three weeks, equating to a staggering £47 Million “gift” to the United Kingdom Government and its Department of Education.
The data from a recent BESA study shows that the attainment gap will now be widened by more than two years, for those children from a lower socio-economic background. With COVID-19 negatively impacting on millions of children that should have been learning from home during the Lockdown and potentially missing out on vital literacy learning, which, under normal circumstances, would have been delivered by teachers instead of parents.
Melanie Harwood and Denise Meissner, of Harwood Education, and Fiona Cowan, Headteacher of Bolsover Infants and Pre-School, wanted to set up the Recovery Curriculum Virtual Summit, to advise school leaders, Headteachers, Principals, Teachers and Educators on the latest innovations, training, trials, expertise and achievements of some of the leading education teams working with schools.
Melanie Harwood and Denise Meissner said, “ We want to thank all teachers and schools for the dedication and care that they have so generously delivered to our children and communities during these past few months. We know that it will be more expensive in the long run for our schools, parents and communities to recover fully from the impact of COVID-19, if we do not all chip in and do our bit.”
Denise Meissner, Co-Founder of Harwood Education said, “It is the same analogy as the slowing of the spread of the virus itself. We must deliver tangible action that is field tested and backed by data from thousands of students across the UK, to ensure that every school has the best tools in their arsenal to fight the negative impact of the Lockdown on our children, so that they emerge stronger and more able to adapt to the era of the New Normal.”
“Our Mission is to close the gap between those that have a tonne with those who have none. The only way to do this is through education and ensuring that every child is given the life skills and learning skills to develop their deeper cognitive thinking, as well as giving them the creative skills to develop their very own opportunities to succeed in life.”
As Handwriting is the key gateway to success with reading, maths, thinking, learning and even keyboarding, the Handwriting Match Fit Assessment was created and developed by Melanie Harwood, Education Specialist, with input from Ms Bec Wakefield, Literacy Lead Down Hall Primary School, Mrs Lou Nelson, Headteacher Down Hall Primary School, Ms Fiona Cowan, Headteacher Bolsover Infant and Pre-School and Denise Meissner, Occupational Therapist and Autism Specialist.
Melanie Harwood says, “We look forward to a more empowered and equipped teaching force that will use the Hammersmith & Fulham Emotional Recovery Training, their own Recovery Curriculum as well as the Handwriting Assessment Training we have gifted to them to deliver the very best in education and .”
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